Woke up feeling more like a normal person this morning, ate simple breakfast and didn't force anything I didn't feel like, but planned on being very disciplined on the bike and at the feed stops. Tracie did well helping me obey my rule of eating! Got my drop bags in and got a short spin before the start. Notice that my fork is maxed out on its travel just cruising town. No tool to get the negative pressure released but was able to get some extra air in (thanks sue's helper). The start was as usual lead out by local police and this time very moderate pace. I like that. Get the old body warmed up a bit. Finally hit the gravel and pace went up a little bit, then hit a gate and bottle neck; lost track of the girls and figured they were up ahead. Stopped for my pee, and learned they were behind. I was so happy with the trails early on, great downs, traverses and ups. Came quickly to feed one, followed my rule with help from Tracie, stopped and had a little "meal" on a bottle. After hearing stories about this day I was really not wanting another repeat of yesterday. Right after the feed we slowly started the first epic climb. I thought it was awesome, hard but just such an epic out in the back country ride. Did my own pace but could see the girls up front. Had some good guys around me that made the extreme hard sections sort of fun, and just for show pushed a bit harder to sit on bike passed the walkers, that didn't last too long though. Eventually we hit the summit and got to have a skittle... Amanda and Sue where already descending and I got behind a fellow that wasn't too happy with me on his wheel but he didn't really put much effort in letting me by. Eventually he slows and let me by, I thank him and move on. Super fun high speed narley mountain summit trail. At the bottom it opened up and was more rocky but several lines could be chosen and besides the risk of a flat I totally enjoyed this section, even though the fork felt like a rigid one today. At the bottom I had both Amanda and Sue right there as we go through feed two. Swap bottle and start second epic climb of the day.
This was road for a bit gradual gradient and the pace wasn't super hard. I figured Amanda knew what she was doing and that it would be wise to sit on the pace. Sure enough it got steep and it was long. Just before the summit Amanda pulled up and I was about to accept an expresso but she was ready to hammer down so better not (I have stock of ccc so no worries there). I was loving this section. It started out pretty smooth and then got rooty and rocky, nice and technical. Sue got on our wheel. The only way to get by was if Amanda made a mistake, but she road it flawless, and in a good pace. I got some bullets from a hail storm hit me, a stick in the derailure that would let go. Quickly stopped to pull it. Sue snuck by, the guy behind her was nice enough to let me go. Got to feed three all together again. Great to see some goats, and grabbed my meal on a bottle, thanks again Tracie, good idea to bring it with me...finished it up!
Based on the previous conversation there would be some hard sections on this final climb. Again sat with the pace until I made a call that we must be close to the top and it would be good to get ahead on the final decent, well I thought it was final. Legs felt ok, so hammered up the rest ( not really, there is no such thing going up here...:). Didn't get much of a gap but and the decent was a double track high speed smooth ride, fun. Then some more pedalling and the legs started saying enough already. Eventually I recognized the single track section, we road it before but up. The famous berm trail. I'm not the best as the dry loose stuff, and behind me comes Sue flying. Not too many passing opportunities for her, but as the trail opened up a bit she moved and passed. Now we got in to my kind of single track, rooty and rocky with good flow, fun way to end the day. No passing opportunities, she was riding too good, so followed across the finish. And Amanda only a few after. Just as the rain started pouring. Time to pedal to town to find a jacket, after the most awesome day on the bike. Hard but fun factor of 10 out of 10.
SRAM rebuilt fork again, so back with suspension tomorrow :)
Happy Riding!
I can't wait to see what happens when you have a working fork and some dialogue to male riders on the downhills to pass!
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